SAN FRANCISCO — NakedSword announced today the VOD and DVD debut of "I Want Your Love," a controversial new indie-drama from gay documentarian Travis Mathews.
"NakedSword has always been more than just gay adult films," NakedSword President Tim Valenti said.
"Since the beginning we strived to offer creative original content that appealed to the gay community in addition to having the top gay adult films and studios on the site available to our members."
"I Want Your Love" stars Jesse Metzger as a broke twenty-something hipster who spends one last night with friends and lovers in San Francisco before moving back home to Ohio. The film, which includes unsimulated sex, marks Mathews' feature narrative debut.
"With 'I Want Your Love,' we saw a golden opportunity to produce an incredible gay independent feature with a story that will have mass appeal across the community and beyond, while further cementing our goal of taking consumers beyond porn and offering them an array of gay adult entertainment not found anywhere else online," Valenti said.
"I Want Your Love" premiered last year at the San Francisco Frameline Festival. Soldout screenings were also held at Lincoln Center in New York, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and Los Angeles' Outfest.
The film's explicit sex scenes recently got it banned in Australia, prompting Oscar-nominated actor James Franco to protest on Mathews' YouTube page. The duo forged a friendship during the making of "Interior. Leather Bar," a gay short produced by Franco and directed by Mathews, based on lost footage from William Friedkin's "Cruising."
"This is a movie about gay life and relationships," Valenti said. "If we wanted to just sell sex, we could have made another porno. But where’s the challenge in that?"
"I Want Your Love" is available on-demand at NakedSword.com. DVDs can be purchased exclusively through TLAGAY.
NakedSword has also launched IWantYourLoveTheMovie.com, a mainstream-friendly site featuring digital downloads, rentals and DVDs.